This survey is about much more than same-sex marriage

By Aubrey Perry

31 August 2017 — 5:14pm

So, how will you be voting in the upcoming mail-in survey? Are you for or against religious influence in our government policymaking? But the survey (if approved by the High Court) is about legalising same-sex marriage, you say? I say, it's about much more.

Because what doesn't get said, what doesn't get talked about, is that, at the heart of the matter, Australia is not governed by a clear separation of church and state. So issues that challenge certain religious principles, such as same-sex marriage, wither under the weight that the religious-right wields in Parliament.

Illustration: Dionne Gain

And while its exact position can be wrangled over, there's little room to dispute this religious sway in Australian government has put Australia behind the times, lagging to catch up to the international conglomerate of countries that have already legalised same-sex marriage.

The Australian Constitution, specifically Section 116, may be the crux of our problem. Most academics and politicians agree the limitations it imposes on the Commonwealth do not amount to a requirement of separation of church and state. They do, however, amount to a lot of room for interpretation.

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MTV Australia is encouraging young people to update their details on the electoral role so they can have their say on same-sex marriage.Credit:Instagram

As a result, religious influence finds its way into government, symbolically and legislatively. Parliament still opens with a church service and employs the daily ritual of saying prayer. The preamble to the Australian Constitution refers to a "humble reliance on the blessing of Almighty God". And, if you want to get technical about it, one might wonder how our constitutional monarchies could ever achieve a true separation of church and state while we have a Queen as head of government who is also the head of the Church of England. Kind of hard to call Australia a secular country when you look at it that way.

Or when you look at the number of "certain" state schools that receive government funding to support particular religious views and religious instruction programs. Or when you look at the $430 million that's gone to employ religious officials such as chaplains in state schools. Or when you look at the $31 billion that our government gives annually to religious institutions, institutions that are exempt from anti-discrimination laws.

And this is how we end up with faith-based care providers who freely discriminate against homosexuals on the sole basis that religious doctrine is more important than fair and equal treatment of all people. Or, in Victoria, how we get doctors who can refuse to perform an abortion if abortion is against their religious beliefs. And this is how the issue of legalising same-sex marriage has become so complicated.

Religious intolerance has kept the possibility of same-sex marriage an impossibility for decades. But now, as those religious factions are being challenged by growing popular support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage, the discussion has come to a head as the spotlight shines on our government, exposing the perils of a country so heavily influenced by its religious factions and so blind to its own reflection.

If marriage equality becomes a legal reality, this will allow everyone to make choices based on their personal convictions. Credit:AAP

Senator Penny Wong described it well: "The problem in all of this is, the application of religious belief to the framing of law in a secular society … religion-based moral codes continue to limit the freedoms and the rights of those who, in the view of religious groups, do not conform to their views."

And for those who don't conform, while this public debate and discussion takes place around them, they, the LGBT community rides along in the passenger seat and grapples with the painful realisation that their fellow citizens get to decide for them their fate and their worth, what human rights they should be allowed, if they are human beings like the rest of us, or if the LGBT should remain social outcasts, alienated and stigmatised by the judgment of the conservative, religious-right.

Those of us in support of legalising same-sex marriage can only hope the recent influx in the number who have enrolled to receive the survey represents the fervent support of people who won't vote along conservative, religious lines but rather with secular hearts. After all, a 2010 Nielsen/Herald poll found that 84 per cent of Australians surveyed agree with the statement "religion and politics should be separate".

So maybe there's a hope that looms even larger. Maybe people will truly consider what their ballot answers represent when they tick that box.

Because there's a lot riding on this. More than we realise. It's a civil rights issue, yes. It's an expression for or against gay marriage, yes. But it's also, and maybe most importantly to the shaping of our country and future freedoms, an acceptance or denial of religion steering our public policymaking and governing our legislative body.

This survey offers us a conscious opportunity to make a firm stand in support of a secular government and to reject discrimination or favouritism based on religion. It's our opportunity to say that religion has no part in the shaping of our laws. A vote against same-sex marriage is a vote for religious bias and discrimination in our legislation, our public schools, our healthcare, and ultimately, in the foundation of our social structure. They say good things come in small packages. This little ballot box could deliver the kind of good that changes the course of a nation and moves us toward a government free from religious influence and discrimination, able to offer freedom of equality to all, and not just to those who love and pray according to the popular religion of the day.